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Second Address 



PEOPLE OF MARYLAND. 



WILLIAM H. COLLINS, 



OF BALTIMORE, 



THIRD EDITION. 




BALTIMORE: 
PRINTED BY JAMES YOUNG 

114 WEST BAiriMORE STREET. 

1861. 



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Second Address 



TO THE 



PEOPLE OF MARYLAND. 



W 



I LLI AM H. COLLINS, 



OF BALTIMORE. 



rHIKD EDITION. 



BALTIMORE: 
rniNTKD BY JAMES YOUNG 

1U WKriT BALTIMORE STREF.T. 

1861. 






I 



^'I'UjHl' WV ^ 



Will you listen if I speak to you of Loyalty, of Love of 
Country? Terrible times have fallen to your lot. Wliat- 
ever of manhood, of i^rudence, of courage, of patriotism be- 
longs to you, now is the time to show it. The Union is in 
danger; your Country is near the throes of death — that 
Union and that Country which have been to you, for sev- 
enty years, one continued shower of blessings ; to which 
you have been accustomed to look from your childhood as 
the palladium of your safety, as the object of your dearest 
affections. State after State has seceded from the Govern- 
ment, refusing obedience to its laws, and attempting to form 
another Government independent of that of our Union. 

Under these painful circumstances it becomes you. People 
of Maryland, to trace out for yourselves the patli to which 
duty, honor, loyalty and patriotism may point the way. 

In Maryland, as in much the larger part of our Country, 
it has ever been held that, to the extent of the powers given 
to the General Government by the People of the States at 
the adoption of our Constitution, that Government became 
a unit, and rightfully claims from us a direct allegiance ; 
that, to the extent of the powers so given, the People of the 
States, in whatever form they may choose to act, have parted 
forever with all the great powers given to the General Gov- 
ernment by the Constitution ; that the People of any one of 
the States, or the State itself whether acting by its Legisla- 
ture or Convention, have no more power over questions of 
war or peace, of ambassadors or treaties, of coining money 



or establishing post-offices, of union or disunion, tlian lias the 
General Government within a State over the distribution 
of the estates of intestates, or the forms of wills, or the de- 
scent of real estate ; that in each case the powers of the 
General Government and of the State Government are re- 
spectively supreme. 

People of Maryland, do you wish to break up your Gen- 
eral Government? Have you become weary of beholding 
the stars and the stripes, the emblems of your Nation's glory? 
Will you desert your Country because others have proved 
false to their allegiance? Is your patriotism so versatile 
that the long-cherished j)assion of your souls has suddenly 
perished ? Are you ready to draw the sword against your 
Country which, heretofore, you have drawn only in her de- 
fence ? 

What is patriotism ? From the beginning of nations, in 
all ages and countries, the patriot has ever been held in the 
highest veneration. The impulse under which he acts has 
ever been lauded by ])ainters, sculptors, poets, historians, as 
the noblest that belongs to our nature — save and except only 
the sacred homage that binds us to our Father in heaven, 
and the mystic tie that connects us with humanity itself. 
Next to these, love of country is the highest and noblest 
feeling of which the human heart is susceptible. Higher 
and more sacred than the ties which bind the husband to his 
wife or the parent to his child, it stands forth, has stood 
forth, and will stand forth forever as the generous and noble 
passion of our souls. The more his Country is in danger, 
the dearer she becomes to the patriot. Are her ranks thin- 
ning? The quicker is his step to take the place of the de- 
serter or the fallen. Is she poor? He lays of his Avealth at 
her feet. Is his life demanded? He lays it down, has ever 
laid it down, and ever will lay it down freely at his country's 
bidding, whether the altar for the sacrifice be at Thermo- 
pylae, or Bunker Hill, or Princeton, or Trenton, or Cowpens, 
or Yorktown. 



Tell me not of serving our Country, or of standing by our 
Country as long as it is our interest to do so. The doc- 
trine is a libel on humanity. Unselfish love for our Country, 
not for the blessings she has bestowed or will bestow, but 
because she is our Country, because we delight to serve her, 
because like your children she is twined around your hearts, 
and it is happiness to labor for her welfare ; this, this is the- 
love which has made, and I trust will make again and again, 
those grand and heroic men to whom history gives immor- 
tality. 

Notwithstanding I am fully aware and justly proud of the 
well-known fealty and loyalty of the People of Maryland to 
their State and National Governments, it seems to me that 
it may be profitable, in these days of rebellion and disunion, 
to recall to your view some general outline of the powers 
vested in those Governments respectively under which we 
have so long lived in prosperity and honor. 

The General Government as well as the Governments of 
the States, in their respective spheres, were intended by the 
Constitution to be immortal. The State of Maryland has no 
more right — either by her State-Convention or otherwise — 
to release you from your allegiance to the General Govern- 
ment, than has the General Government to release you from 
the duties you owe to the State of Maryland. Each has its 
separate orbit, and the one has no right to interfere with 
the other. If the State of Maryland should pass an ordi- 
nance of secession by a Convention called by her Legislature, 
or in any other way, and should attempt by such ordinance 
to interfere with, or supersede the allegiance you owe to the 
General Government, I say to you. People of Maryland, 
under all the responsibilities which may attend the declara- 
tion, that such an ordinance would be null and void. I re- 
peat, such an ordinance would be null and void, because it 
would be beyond the powers reserved to the States by the 
Constitution of the Union, and would be a direct interference 
with the powers granted by that Constitution to the General 
Government. A Convention of the People of a State is 



6 

limited, as to its powers, to the parceling out and providing 
for the exercise of the powers and rights reserved to the 
States. Over the j)owers granted to the General Govern- 
ment hy the Constitution, a State-Convention has no power 
whatever. Tlie Constitution of the United States is para- 
mount to the State-Convention. The State-Convention is 
subject to the Constitution of the United States. The State 
Legislature is subject, first, to the Constitution of the United 
States, and secondl)^, to the Constitution of tlie State. 

I desire to he understood. The Constitution of the United 
States vests in the Geneial Government, in perjDctuitj, all 
the high powers, rights, and functions granted to it, and 
specially enumerated in that sacred instrument. There can 
be no change in that Constitution, except by one of the ways 
pointed out in the fifth article thereof. By that article it is 
in substance provided, that two-thirds of both Houses of 
Congress can propose amendments to the Constitution ; or, 
at tlie application of two-thirds of the Legislatures of the 
States, it shall be the duty of Congress to call a Convention 
for the purpose of proposing amendments to the Constitu- 
tion ; which amendments, in either case, sliall be valid, as 
parts of the Constitution to all intents and purposes^ when 
ratified by the Legislatures of three-fourths of the States, 
or by Conventions in three-fourths thereof, as the one or the 
other mode of ratification may be proposed by Congress. 

The powers of the General Government are such as the 
Constitution now gives, or may hereafter give to it, by either 
of the modes of amendment prescribed by the Constitution 
itself. These powers are sacred to the General Government. 
The States liave parted with them forever. A State-Govern- 
ment, or a State-Convention has no more right to interfere 
with any of these powers so vested in the General Govern- 
ment, than it has to interfere with the powers of the 
British Parliament, or of the absolute sovereign of Russia. 
The Constitution of the United States is paramount to the 
General Government, as well as to the Governments and 
Conventions of the States respectively. All Acts of Con- 



gress passed in pursuance of its constitutional powers are 
declared, by the Constitution itself, to be "the supreme law 
of the land ; and the Judges in every State shall be bound 
thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any State 
to the contrary notwithstanding." 

What, then, are the powers of a State-Convention, duly 
convened? Such a Convention has absolute control over all 
the rights and jDowers reserved to the States ; that is to say, 
not granted by the Constitution to the General Government. 
Such a State-Convention can shape the State-Government in 
any form it jileases — provided it be republican — as to the 
apportionment and exercise of the powers so reserved to the 
States. This has usually been done by forming a State-Con- 
stitution. Such a State-Constitution usually provides that 
certain of the reserved powers shall not be interfered with 
by the State Legislature ; and vests the other reserved powers 
in siich State-Legislative, Judicial and Executive Depart- 
ments as the State-Constitution provides. These State-Con- 
ventions and Constitutions have no more control over the 
powers and rights of the General GovernJiient, than over 
the powers and rights of Foreign Nations. 

Such, People of Maryland, I believe to be the true and 
plain statement of the powers and relations of the compli- 
cated machinery which constitutes our General and State 
Governments. 

First in order, and over and above all, is the Constitution 
of "The United States of America," as it now exists, or as 
it may hereafter be amended in pursuance of provisions con- 
tained within itself. 

Second in order^ is the Government of "The L^nited States 
of America," which, to the full extent of the powers con- 
ferred upon it by the Constitution, is over and above all 
State-Legislatures, or State-Conventions, or State Constitu- 
tions ; and is subject only, to the full extent of those powers 
and all laws passed in pursuance thereof, to the Constitution 
itself as it now is^ or as it may hereafter be amended in 
pursuance of its own provisions. 



8 

Third in order are the State-Conventions when lawfully 
assembled. These State-Conventions have supreme power 
only over the rights reserved to the States ; that is to say, 
not granted by*the Constitution to the General Government. 
These State-Conventions are clearly subject to the Constitu- 
tion of the United States, and to all acts of Congress passed 
pursuant thereto. 

Fourth in order are the State-Governments, consisting of 
their legislative, judicial, and executive departments ; all 
of which are clearly subject, firsts to the Constitution of the 
United States ; secondly to the General Government to the 
full extent of its powers as vested in it by the Constitution ; 
and thirdly, to the Constitutions of the respective States. 

If these things be so, should there be a question with any 
faithful and loyal citizen of the United States, whether he 
will obey a Convention of his own State acting beyond its 
])Owers, or the General Government in the exercise of its 
constitutional functions ? Is not the very statement of the 
question its argument? 

To go a step further. A State cannot leave the Union, 
even by the consent of the General Government. Congress, 
or the President and Senate have no power to give such 
consent. The relations of the General Government to the 
several States, and of the several States to the General Gov- 
ernment are prescribed and fixed by the Constitution, No 
ao-reement or consent between a State and the General Gov- 
ernment can change these relations. Any such agreement 
would be in direct violation of the Constitution, That Con- 
stitution is paramount to the General Government, as well 
as to the State-Governments, The separation of a State 
from the General Government can only be legalized by an 
amendment to the Constitution, according to one of the ways 
pointed out in that instrument. 

Nor can the separation of a State from the General Gov- 
ernment be authorised by a treaty between them. No treaty 
can be made between the General Government and a State 
Government. Ambassadors, by force of the term, are high 



9 

agents, appointed by one sovereign power to separate and 
distinct nationalities. Their agreements are called treaties. 
Such treaties, by the grants of the Constitution, the United 
States has power to make with another Government. But 
that Constitution expressly declares, that "no State shall 
enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation." The 
powers of the General Government of the United States, as 
also of the Governments of the States, are fixed by the Con- 
stitution. The General Government has all the powers 
granted by that instrument. All powers not thereby granted 
to the General Government, nor prohibited to the States, are 
reserved to the States respectively. The General Govern- 
ment and the State-Governments each, within its sphere, is 
supreme. Out of its sphere each is powerless, and its acts 
7iull and void. 

As correctives of any abuse of these respective powers we 
have the ballot-box, both State and National, the equality 
of all the States both great and small in the Senate, popu- 
lar representation in the House of Representatives and in 
the Executive, and a life-tenure on the part of the Judiciary, 
which has full power, in any case brought before it within 
the range of its jurisdiction, to redress any wrong committed 
against the humblest citizen. 

The General Government has no power to make war on a 
State. Why is this? It is because by the very nature of 
icar the conqueror becomes absolute master of the conquered. 
He can give the conquered country such laws and govern- 
ment, and dictate to it such terms as he pleases. But the 
General Government, by the Constitution, is prohibited from 
interfering with the powers reserved to the States. The 
General Government can neither take from, nor add to 
the powers of the States. JSTor can she, as against or in 
ftivor of a State, take from or add to her own powers. There- 
fore it is that the General Government cannot make loar on 
a State ; because, if successful, she would annihilate State- 
power through the high powers conferred by the laws of war 



10 

(3n the conqueror ; and tliat would be inconsistent witli, and 
in violation of the Constitution. 

Nor can tlie General Government make "war on the people 
of a State ; because by the laws of war, resistance made by 
the people of a Country, in defence of its nationality, has ever 
been held as noble and praiseworthy by generous conquer- 
ors ; w^hereas the levying of war against the United States, 
by the citizens of a State, is treason by the clear provisions 
of the Constitution. The converse of these propositions is 
equally true. A State, or the people thereof, cannot make 
war on the General Government. The riglits, the relations, 
and the obligations of the States to the General Govern- 
ment, and of the General Government to the States, are 
fixed and settled by the Constitution. They can neither be 
increased, nor changed, nor varied by war, nor by treaty, 
nor otherwise, excei^t by an amendment of the Constitution 
in one of the ways pointed out by it. This Constitution is 
the true higher laio. It binds alike the General Govern- 
ment, the several States, and the People thereof; and cannot 
be cbanged, or altered by nullification, secession, or rebellion 
on the part of a State ; nor by war or treaty between a State 
and the Government of the Union. 

But, People of Maryland, you have never denied, nor your 
Fathers before you, that the General Government possesses 
ample powers to enforce obedience to her laws. The very 
term Government implies these powers. They are innate, 
inherent, from the nature of things. They have been recog- 
nised and practiced from the beginning in the better and 
purer days of the Republic. The General Government has 
also, of necessity, the right and the power to defend her 
Forts, her Arsenals, her Custom-Houses, and to collect her 
revenues. These powers are also inherent. They too are in 
the nature of things. The Convention which framed the 
Constitution, and the Peo])le of the States wlio adopted it, 
no doubt intended to create, and did create thereby, a Gov- 
ernment able to sustain itself. 



11 

I do not deem it advisable, however, in the present con- 
dition of our Country, to discuss, in detail, the ways and 
means by which the General Government might, in case of 
dire extremity, uphold and maintain her authority. I trust 
that dire extremity will never come. The largest statesman- 
ship, the truest love for our whole Country, with a, full share 
thereof for the disaffected part ; the deei)est horror and 
dread of fratricidal contests, patience, forbearance, concilia- 
tion, a willingness to listen to complaints, and a desire and 
resolution to redress them to the extreme verge of justice and 
equity ; a firm resolve to maintain the Union and the Con- 
stitution ; with a full knowledge that these will find their 
surest foundations when, without a strain, like a ship on the 
water, they rest on the affections of the People ; these are 
some of the qualities of that high and eminent statesman- 
ship which would be necessary for a wise and proper decision 
of these great questions of power, and prudence, and patriot- 
ism, in the event of the failure of all other means to sustain 
the Government, Long, long may it be before the American 
Statesman is called upon to decide these high and mighty 
questions. Should it be otherwise I humbly pray that he 
may bring to that decision a courage, a wisdom, a discretion, 
a patience and a patriotism equal to those of Washington 
himself. I have the greatest confidence that, with a tithe of 
these high qualities of statesmanship, the present difficulties 
of our Country can be settled, and our Union saved in all its 
brotherhood and glory and power. 

After our troubles are over^ should another Anacharsis 
visit our Country — as did the first of that name, some twen- 
ty-four centuries ago, the States of Greece — for tlie purpose 
of carrying back to his native Scythia a knowledge of our 
institutions, our civilization, our manners, our customs, our 
commerce, our science, our agriculture and our military 
power, he should, first of all, study the frame-work of our 
National and State Governments, and take a clear view of 
the wondrous w^orking of the Constitution as it holds the 
great Central Government firm in its place, whilst the State- 



12 

Grovernments revolve around it in their respective orbits 
without a jostle, controlled by the same mighty power. 

He might then be told that, less than four centuries ago, 
the existence of the American Continent was unknown to the 
civilizations of Europe and of Asia ; that the race which now 
owns and controls the vast area of the United States is an 
offslioot from Europe ; and under colonial forms of Govern- 
ment, in about a century and a half it reached a population 
of three millions ; that it separated from the parent stem 
less tlmn a century since, and, under the workings of our 
General Government, the Nation thus formed has trebled its 
area, and increased by more than tenfold its population, 
power, commerce, productions and wealth ; that soon a 
hundred millions of free and brave sons will repose in plenty 
and safety under the wings of this Great Central Govern- 
ment. 

When this great creation of our Fathers shall have been 
clearly comprehended, well might the noble Scythian ex- 
claim : I will visit your Niagara ; I will float on your great 
Inlaud Seas in the wooden palaces I have heard of, and which 
more than rival the wonders of Eastern story ; I will climb 
your Mountains, as they divide the water-sheds of your land, 
stretching from Ocean to Ocean ; I will trace your Rivers as 
they drain and fertilize your valleys, and afford path-ways 
for your commerce for thousands and tens of thousands of 
miles ; I will see with my own eyes your fields white with 
the bloom of the cotton, or yellow with their golden har- 
vests ; I will travel on your Rail-Roads and Canals ; I will 
visit your Cities and behold your monuments and your (/api- 
tol ; but I shall see nothing, I can see nothing equaling in 
colossal grandeur the great intellectual creation which gave 
your General Government the powers of an Empire ; whilst 
your State-Governments^ existing in smaller fragments, bring 
justice, and law, and government almost to the door of the 
citizen, and give him at the ballot-box control over their ad- 
ministration. These, People of America, are your true glory. 
As a friend of humanity, I pray you sustain your Govern- 



13 

ment; uphold your Constitution; maintain your allegiance; 
let Stars be added to your National Flag ; let one be struck 
from it, Never ! Never ! 

People of Maryland, I have tried to present to you a brief, 
but I trust a clear and accurate outline of the powers and 
relations of the National and State-Governments, under 
which we have lived in prosperity, honor, and freedom for 
more than seventy years. Of all the States of the Union, 
Maryland, from her location, has drunk freest and deepest 
from the great fountains of our National prosperity. The 
General Government has been to you as a shower of manna 
for seventy years. You have grown with its growth. Your 
wives, your children, your liberties and your institutions, 
have ever found a safe shelter under the wings of its eagle. 
Truly, "as a hen gathereth lier chickens under her wings," 
so has the National Government sheltered you. The Sons 
of Maryland have found service and gained honor and glory 
in the military, as well as in the civil departments of the 
Government. Your mechanics and artisans have found 
honest and well-rewarded employment in her noble and 
costly public works. Your commerce has been protected on 
every sea. For seventy years you have been cherished by 
her love, her care, her power as if she were, as in truth she 
is, your mother. Through her you are owners of a broad 
domain, stretching from Ocean to Ocean, and from Mexico 
to the frozen regions of Canada, All this is now your 
Country, and within its more than imperial limits you and 
your children and your children's children, may find free 
and ample homes for ages and ages to come. 

If you are asked to abandon tliis imperial domain and 
withdraw your allegiance from the General Government, 
will you do it ? Have you any complaints to make of the 
General Government ? Its course has ever been parental. 
You complain of your Sister States ! And will you abandon 
your allegiance to the General Government, because some of 
your Northern Sisters have passed laws unfrienclly to your 
Institutions in violation of their constitutional duties, and 



14 

wlncli laws are therefore void ; or because some of your 
Southern Sisters have passed ordinances of secession, in vio- 
lation of the same sacred instrument, and therefore equally 
void? I trust not ; I pray not. Rely upon it the heart of 
the People of this gi'eat Country heats in tune to the 
music of the Union. If the Congress which is about to 
close its career shall fail, by a constitutional majority, to 
propose satisfactory amendments to the Constitution, do not 
be disheartened. That Congress— and it is with a blush for 
my Country tliat I say it — numbers nvciuy politicians, and but 
few statesmen. 

There is another mode of amending the Constitution. Let 
the Legislatures of the several States call on Congress to 
summon a Convention. Two-thirds of the State-Legisla- 
tures agreeing, Congress is bound to call it. A Convention 
fresh from the People would agree on amendments satisfac- 
tory to the Country. The People of the United States would 
look to this. They do not mean that this our Government 
is to be broken up ; and will therefore take care that fair 
concessions are offered by the one side, and accepted by the 
other. These amendments should be submitted to State- 
Conventions, and not to the State-Legislatures. The People 
will see to it that they are accepted by the constitutional 
majority of the States. Even the seceding Slates, tired as 
they will be of their unnatural position, will cast their votes 
for the amendments when they are assured that these votes 
will ensure their final adopytion. What we need now is 
patience, forbearance, love of Country. Do not despair of 
the Republic. Stand firmly by your flag, your Government, 
your Country in this their hour of danger. If evil betide 
you, it will come whilst you are in the path of honor and 
duty. Abandon these, and you will at best become a de- 
fenceless member of a dwarfed Confederacy, full of nullifica- 
tion and secession — for of these it will have been born, and 
it will naturally partake of the qualities of its jmrents. 

For myself, I did not know how much I loved my Coun- 
try till I saw her in these her greatest perils. She has the 



15 

best, the truest, the inosth;)yal affections of my soul. I love 
her the more for her misfortunes and dangers. I love her 
better than in 7iiy yontli. In youth we love so many things 
as to prevent concentration of the affections. But, as we 
advance in life, our own future home, where we humbly hope 
to meet the loved-ones who have gone before us ; and the 
home here, to whose shelter we must commit the loved-ones 
we leave behind us and the race with Avhich we are con- 
nected by the mysterious ties of nature, stand forth in bold 
relief, and challenge our highest and holiest thoughts. Lilce 
the Sibylline books these remaining objects of our love are 
the more dearly treasured for their diminished number. I 
am too old to change my allegiance. I could not have done 
so in the more impulsive days of my youth. Be that as it 
may, I have loved my country too long, too well, ever to 
renounce her. Were she to treat me unjustly, yea, even 
cruelly, I would sooner perish than do aught against her 
honor, her glory or her power. She would be my Country 
still. I would trust to her justice. If that justice failed to 
reach me whilst I live, I would still serve her to the utmost 
of my power, and trust that it would at last reach my hum- 
ble name, even in the grave. Come what may in the widest 
range of human events, I trust my arm, if ever raised against 
my Country, may fliU shattered by my side, and that my 
tongue may be palsied if it ever attempt to give utterance 
to a thought, or a wish disloyal to her safety and honor. 

Taunt me not with being a submissionist. To lawful 
authority the loftiest spirit submits most loyally. No man 
was ever less noble for being submissive to tlic will and the 
laws of our Great Father in heaven ; or for being obedient. 
and faithful to the Constitution and laws of his Mother — 
the Country of his birth and his love. These are high 
duties, acknowledged alike by Jewish, Grecian, Roman, and 
Christian patriotism. When Socrates, more than twenty 
centuries ago, was condemned to death by an unjust and un- 
grateful Country, his friends arranged for his escape. He 
refused his proffered liberty and life ; and placed that refu- 



16 

sal on an oLecIiencc to the laws of his country so high and 
lofty as to challenge, in all ages and countries, the approval 
of the humblest, as well as of the loftiest minds. "Are you 
ignorant that your Country is more considerable, and more 
worthy of respect and veneration before God and man, than 
your lather, mother, and all your relations together? That 
you ought to honor your Country, yield to it, and humor it, 
more than an angry father? That you must either reclaim 
it by your counsel, or obey its injunctions, and suflPer with- 
out a murmur all that it imposes upon you? If it order 
you to be" "laid in irons, if it sends you to the wars, there 
to spend your blood, you ought to do it without demurring. 
You must not shake off the yoke, or flinch, or quit your 
post; but in the army, in prison, and everywhere else, ought 
equally to obey the orders of your Country. For if offering 
violence to a father or a mother is a piece of grand impiety, 
to put a force upon one's Country is a much greater." Such 
is the lesson of patriotism taught by the wisest and noblest 
son of Greece. For more than twenty centuries it has re- 
ceived the plaudits of the wise, the good, the true and the 
brave ; and I must be ^^ardoned if I refuse to change it for 
the teachings of the modern school of "nullification, seces- 
sion, disunion and rebellion." 

People of Maryland ! I asked you to listen if I spoke to 
you of Loyalty, of Love of Country. I pray your forgive- 
ness if my words have proved false to the impulses of my 
heart, and have flowed in a strain unequal to the high 
themes of which I have spoken. Would to God the power 
were given me to discuss these higli questions witli an elo- 
quence as lofty as themselves. They do not concern your 
wealth, or your safety, or your industry ; though I believe 
these interests lie in the same direction that your higher and 
holier duties point out. But whether that be so or not my 
purpose was to point you to the path of duty, of honor, of 
loyalty, of love of Country, in the full belief that it will lead 
you to glory and lienor which, to a People, are worth more 
than all the untold treasures of the golden rocks of (Cali- 
fornia. 



17 

The true need of our Country is more of faithfvl sons. 
People of Maryland, come to her rescue. Lay upon hei- 
altars your "lives, your fortunes, your sacred honor."" I 
trust it will not be long before the restored brotherhood and 
revived patriotism of our people will bring back harmony to 
our Federal and State-Governments ; when the American, 
offering to his brother — no matter whence they come or 
wliere they meet — the right-hand of fellowslii'i), of conces- 
sion^ of kindness, and of peace, will reserve his sword and 
his courage for the enemies of his Counti-y ; when we shall 
once more, as a People, acknowledge the duties of loyalty, 
of love of Country. This blessed time I think I see in the 
distance. "The North will give up; the South will not 
keep hack." Even South Carolina will return to her true 
resting-place in the arms of the Union ; ready again to 
answer, if need he, at tlie call of a Noithern commander, 
and with a son as brave and true as he who fell on the jdains 
of Mexico, "Lead on; South Carolina will follow you to the 
death." 

WJien this blessed day shall have arrived, as arrive it 
surely will, thirty millions of People will shout with one 
united voice : Thanks, thanks to the Great Father of us all, 
our Brotherhood is restored, our Country is saved, oui- Peo- 
ple united, our Constitution and Government maintained. 

WILLIAM H. COLLINS. 

Baltimore, Felntary 23, 1801. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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